Age alone should never be a determining factor in driver licensing. What I’m saying is
that no matter how you look at it, there are individuals on our roadways who are a serious threat to themselves and others, and this is a very severe and real problem.
There was an interesting movie some years back called “Driving Miss Daisy”. The movie
was about a proud , elderly woman who could no longer drive. After unsuccessful attempts at
public transportation, her son hired a chauffeur to solve the problem. The arrangement forged a
touching friendship between the driver and his passenger. However, that kind of life is only in the movies. For most seniors hiring a personal chauffeur is not an option.
Elderly people are considered to be individuals who are sixty-five and older. Most of
these people are licensed to drive and own motor vehicles. This situation poses a serious safety
issue. Each year, there are hundreds if not thousands of individuals who, due to a physical or
emotional impairment, no longer meet the standards the registry of motor vehicles has set forth, as the minimum qualifications required to be issued a driver’s license. The registry of motor
vehicles has a responsibility of issuing and renewing motor vehicle driver’s licenses. It is also the
agency that has an obligation of monitoringthose individuals who have been issued a driver’s
license. However, these impaired drivers continue to operate on our roadways undetected,
unrestricted placing all of us at significant risk. I am not talking about drunk drivers, or people
with bad driving records who have had many accidents or speeding tickets. I am talking about
good people, who because of a medical impairment, now present a hazard to themselves and the
general public.
According to the American Association of Retired Persons, everyone ages differently, and
growing old does not necessarily mean a person becomes a safety hazard on the road. Much
depends on the person’s physical and mental health as the years pass. A.A.R.P. also declare that
about thirty percent of those drivers over the age sixty-five are hearing impaired. The ability to
hear is more important to driving than most people realize. Hearing can warn a driver of danger
signals like the the sound of sirens, horns, or screeching tires. There are occasions when a driver
can hear a car but can’t see it due to a blind spot. Good hearing helps drivers to be sensitive to
what is happening on the roadways around them.
The increasing frequency of chronic diseases in the elderly may complicate driving as
well. Arthritis, for example, or changes in posture may make it difficult for a senior to operate
properly. Reduced muscle strength or loss of coordination due to such conditions as Parkinson’s
disease can also limit driving ability. Seniors often take several prescriptions at one time, and
side affects can affect driving. The N.H.T.S.A. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
summarized 2000 highway statistics for older drivers in “Traffic Safety Facts 2000”. The
publication reported that in the year 2000 older drivers were thirty percent of all licensed
drivers. Of traffic fatalities involving older drivers, eighty-two percent happened in the daytime,
seventy-one percent occurred on weekdays, and seventy-five percent involved a second vehicle. Twenty-eight percent of crash-involved older drivers were turning left when they were struck,
that’s seven times more often than younger drivers were struck while making left turns. On the
basis of estimated annual travel, the fatality rate for drivers eighty-five and over is nine times as high as the rate for drivers twenty-five through sixty-nine years old.
My grandfather is seventy-three years old, and he had been driving practically his entire
life. Every year he gets either a moving violation, he crashes into a tree, or he has an accident.
My whole family had tried repeatedly to persuade him to stop driving, yet he refuses to stop.
My mother had even tried hiding his keys from him; it didn’t work either. He is a very stubborn
man. On October 15th, 2001, I sat him down and asked him why he refuses to stop driving,
when there is safer transportation out there, like the bus, train, or car service. So he explained to me that he considers driving “a manly thing”. My grandfather associates driving to freedom and
independence, and he also mentioned that losing his license would be like a “death sentence”.
According to the N.P.T.S. (Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey)cognitive and
physical abilities generally decline with age. One consequence of the decline is that driving skills
of the elderly are reduced. As a result elderly drivers are more likely to be involved in crashes
than all drivers. In the majority of crashes in which elderly drivers were involved, they were at
fault for failing to yield the right-of-way, turning improperly, ignoring traffic signals, or starting
improperly into traffic. Another consequence of the decline in their physical abilities, is that
elderly people are more likely to be injured than younger people in a crash. These two important characteristics of the elderly have negative effects on their driving habits.
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, we must find a way to get these people off
the road, because they are a huge hazard to themselves as well as other innocent people on the
road. I’m talking about saving peoples lives, which include elderly people, woman, men, and
children. I believe that we should establish some kind of regulation that generates strict licensing and renewal guidelines for elderly people, age sixty-five and older. It should be a mandatory
state law to renew driver licenses once every three months instead of once every five years. We
need to stop this once and for all, andend preventable loss and death on the
road. www.PassNurseExams.com